London Prepares for Travel Chaos With 48-Hour Underground Strike

Transport for London, which runs the Tube, said limited services will run on all lines except the Waterloo & City, which will be closed. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Londoners prepared for two days of
travel chaos as last-minute talks to avert a subway strike ended
without an agreement.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport Union called the 48-hour
strike, which starts today at 9 p.m., to protest against
possible job cuts and ticket-office closures. Talks between
union leaders and London Underground, which says the changes are
needed to modernize the world’s oldest subway, ended without a
deal after about two hours today.

Prime Minister David Cameron called the planned strike
“unjustified and unacceptable” last week and London
Underground has said no job losses will be compulsory. The RMT
union’s veteran leader Bob Crow, who described himself as a
“communist stroke socialist” and boasted of winning raises for
his members even as the government implemented austerity, died
last month, leaving the group with an interim leader.

Transport for London, which runs the Tube, said limited
services will run on all lines except the Waterloo & City, which
will be closed. The Northern Line, the busiest, will have
services every five minutes, although trains won’t stop at 18
stations. Central and Piccadilly line trains, which cross the
capital on an east-west axis, won’t stop in central London.

Financial District

Trains on the Jubilee Line will run every seven minutes
between Wembley Park and Stratford, serving the financial
district of Canary Wharf. Other services such as the Docklands
Light Railway, London Overground, trams and rail services will
be operating as normal, as will buses and river bus services,
TfL said in a statement on April 24.

Workers for the Heathrow Express, which connects Heathrow
Airport with the city, are also on strike from tomorrow until
May 1, and the Fire Brigades Union plans a series of strikes
from May 2 over pensions.

A second Tube walkout, lasting three days, is planned for
next week and TfL urged union leaders today to continue talks
this week. The subway carries more than 1 billion passengers per
year, according to TfL, and each day more than 3 million
journeys are made on the network. As part of the modernization
plan, London Underground plans to keep the network open through
the night at weekends from next year.